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Characteristics
Characteristics are a broad measure of a person's physical and mental prowess. They measure everything from the character's physical strength, endurance, and swiftness to their mental fortitude, quick thinking, and social aptitude. The higher the characteristic is, the better the character is at performing tasks related to that stat. Characteristics fall into 2 categories: Base and Derived. Base Characteristics are the back-bone of the character's other attributes, determining what . Derived Characteristics are built from the bases to represent statistics that the Base Characteristics alone are insufficient in expressing, such as resilience to pain and how capable someone is at avoiding attacks. Base Characteristics Base Characteristics are separated into 7 categories: Agility, Body, Charisma, Dexterity, Ego, Intelligence, and Strength. Agility Agility is a measure of a character's mobility and reaction time; Agile characters can run faster, react to danger more quickly, and more easily avoid harm than other characters. If a players wants a character that can cover more distance more quickly and evade attacks well, they should put points into Agility. * In other table top games, Agility is typically paired with Dexterity to represent a character's overall mobility and fine motor control. This makes since on the surface, but the developer feels there is enough distinction between moving quickly and moving carefully that the two should be kept separate. How fast someone can run has nothing to do with how well they can pick locks or knot ropes, nor does dismantling traps have anything in common with athletic prowess. * Movement: One statistic Agility solely factors into is Movement, or how far a character can move on their turn during combat. There are 3 basic Movement types that Agility contributes to: Run, Leap, and Swim. Other categories such as Fly and Teleport can only be acquired through Powers. For exact details on how movement works, consult the Gameplay section. ** Run: A Full Move using Run equals the character's full Agility. ** Leap: A character can Leap up to Half their Agility in a single round. ** Swim: A character can Swim at half their Agility in a single round. Body Body represents a character's physical well-being, including their resilience to pain, how easily it is for them them to become injured, and how well well they physically respond to mental abuse. Characters with high Body can withstand more damage while also taking less of it, though characters who channel Powers should also consider having a high Body so that they have the Stamina to use their abilities. * If a character develops any Powers as Natural Abilities (see Powers for details), they use their Body to determine how many Active Character Points the ability can be based off of. Charisma Charisma represents a characters force of presence and social aptitude. Charismatic people know how to present themselves so that they seem more appealing to interact with, can articulate themselves well, and can handle criticism and mental abuse better than the average person. * If a character uses Prana as a source for their Powers (see Powers for details), they use their Charisma to determine how many Active Characters their abilities can be based off of. Dexterity Dexterity is a stand-in for a character's fine motor controls and adaptability. A dexterous person can complete takes required fine details more easily, manipulate their bodies to avoid attacks or escape constraints, and is more accurate with their own attacks. If a player doesn't know what else to put points into, Dexterity is always a useful pick since it factors into so many other attributes. * Dexterity also determines how many points characters can build Martial Arts off of (see Martial Arts for details), since characters with better control of their own movements can pull off more complicated maneuvers. Ego Ego roughly measures a character's discipline and mental toughness. The bigger the character's Ego, the more pain they can withstand, the less susceptible to mental assaults they are, and the easier it is to force themselves to complete tasks they don't want to complete. * If a character wants to develop any Psychic Powers (see Powers for details), Ego sets the cap for such powers' Active Character Points. Intelligence Intelligence roughly measures how quickly a person can grasp ideas and synthesize them into new ones. How smart a character is doesn't factor in much into their Derived Characteristics, but being able to process information quickly improves a wider variety of skills, and it gives them a better idea of how to manipulate the environment for their benefit. * If a character develops Powers from a Primal source (see Powers for details), their Intelligence sets the cap for their abilities' Active Character Points. Strength Strength roughly equates to a person's muscle mass and physical prowess. The stronger a person is, the less pain they feel from physical abuse, the more weight they can carry, the further they can throw objects, and the more damage their physical attacks can deal. If a player wants their character to do well in hand-to-hand combat and wield heavy weapons, they should increase their Strength as much as possible. * One attribute Strength directly contributes to is Carrying Capacity, or how much weight someone can bear and still move. Carrying Capacity is separated into 5 categories: Light Load, Medium Load, Heavy Load, Lift, and Drag. ** A Light Load is roughly how much a person can carry without limiting their movement. ** A Medium Load is how much weight a person can bear without hurting themselves. ** A Heavy Load is how much can safely hold and still move, albeit at a slower rate. ** Lift is the maximum a person can hold above the ground. ** Drag is how much someone can pull or push along the ground unaided. * How much a character can lift in each of these categories, according to their strength, is recorded on the following table: * If a character has an amount of Strength that doesn't show up on the table, add or subtract 5 off the Character's Strength until the result is found on the table. For every 5 points added or subtracted from the original Strength to get to a number on the table, divide or multiply the Capacities listed under the resulting number's by 2. ** For Example: After using a Change Size power to modify her Strength, Willow has a Strength of 28, which doesn't appear on the table. She subtracts 10 from her Strength to get to 18, which does show up on the table and gives her a light load of 82 lb, a 165 lb medium load, a 330 lb heavy load, a 660 lb lift capacity, and a drag weight of 1650 lb. She then takes these numbers and multiplies them by 4, since she subtracted from her Strength twice to get back on the table. For a 28 Strength, she can carry 440 lbs as a light load, 880 lbs as a medium load, and 1760 lbs as a heavy load. She can also lift 2640 lbs, and she can drag 6600 lbs. * Finally, Strength by itself determines how far a character can throw an object. Throwing distance is measured as follows: ** If the object weighs over 10 lbs or 4 kg, compare the target's weight to the Heavy Load portion of the Lift table. For the amount of strength needed to lift the object or person, subtract that amount from the the thrower's Strength and look up the total on the Throwing Table. *** If the object weights less than 10 lb or 4 kg, the thrower uses their full Strength to determine the distance they can toss the object. * For most practical purposes, if the target is within the character's maximum distance for their throwing range, they should be able to hit the target with a successful accuracy check. Maximum Height should only be taken into account in circumstances where the target is elevated more than 10 meters, either because of the terrain or the target can fly. Increasing and Decreasing Base Characteristics All Base Characteristics start at 10, which represents the average person's capabilities in each area. Increasing a single stat by 1 costs 1 Character Point. Unless they have a template that raises how high the Characteristic can go, a player can only put up to 10 points into an attribute, capping Base Characteristics to a maximum of 20. 20, in this case, represents the maximum potential a human has in any particular area; 20 Strength means the character is among the strongest humans in the world, 20 Intelligence means the character is one par with the likes of Albert Einstein and Nikolai Tesla in terms of academic achievement, ect. The only way a character can exceed this cap is by using Powers such as Aid or Change Size to augment themselves, or by picking up an item during a session that raises their Base Characteristics. Alternatively, characters can take points out of their Base Characteristics and reallocate those points into other areas. Attributes can be lowered by up to 5 points, and these points must be put back into a player’s other Base Characteristics. * For Example: Alex is building a character meant for melee combat that they imagines as being a stereotypical dumb fighter. Because they is won't have much use for Intelligence, Alex lowers the character's Intelligence by 5 so that she has more points to put elsewhere. However, these 5 points can only be allocated into other Base Characteristics, so they can't use this to give the fighter more Weapon Proficiencies or a Martial Art. Therefore, Alex uses the 5 points to bump up the character's Body and Strength. Characteristic Dice With the exception of Accuracy checks and a few select powers, all rolls in UTTAS are made using Characteristics die. If a character wants to pry something open, they roll their Strength dice and tell the Game Master their total. If the player is stumped and needs a hint on how to proceed, the Game Master might come up with a target number and ask one of the characters to make an Intelligence roll. If a character is grabbed, they can use their Dexterity dice to try and escape. When and where characters roll their dice is up to the Game Master, and while players will usually have other dice to add into rolls from Skills or equipment, they should always keep note of their unaltered Characteristic Dice for situations in which they either have nothing to add to their rolls or if they develop a new Ability that takes advantage of their Base Characteristics. Characters receive 1d6 for every 5 points in their Base Characteristic. If their stat is equal to or more than halfway between multiples of 5, they do not round up their stat for an extra die. * For Example: Willow has 10 Strength, 12 Agility, and 8 Charisma. She gets 2d6 for her Strength Dice, since 10 divided by 5 equals 2. The closest multiple of 5 to 12 is 10, so Willow gets 2 Agility Dice. Her 8 Charisma is closer to 10 than 5, but since character's don't round up their Base Characteristics when calculating how many dice they get, she only gets 1d6 Charisma dice. Derived Characteristics Derived Characteristics are built off of a character's Base Characteristics, representing attributes built off of other stats. These stats have a more direct role in combat, determining how difficult it is to hit the character with attacks, reducing how much damage they take, and setting how many actions characters can take in a round. Dodge Dodge represents the character's ability to duck and weave under attacks. When someone attempts to attack the character using a physical or ranged attack, they must make an Accuracy check; the attack misses if their total roll is under their target's Dodge, and it hits if the roll equals or exceeds the target's Dodge. * Formula: Agility+Dexterity/2+11. Dodging attacks isn't just about moving quickly out of the way; there is greater technical skill involved in not moving too far out of the way or creating new openings to get hit. Discipline Discipline marks a character's ability to shrug off mental attacks and verbal abuse. It works similarly to Dodge mechanically; the only difference is that Discipline only applies to Mental Attacks. * Formula: Charisma+Ego/2+11. Discipline is a mix of mental toughness and force of will. Someone who can present themselves imposingly is more difficult to dominate, and someone with a large Ego is less susceptible to mind-affecting abilities. Resistance Resistance measures a character's resilience to fire, electricity, and other types of Energy Attacks. If the character gets hits by an Energy attack, they get to subtract their Resistance from the damage. * Formula: Body+Ego/2. A person's conditioning helps their body endure extreme temperatures, while a high Ego lets them ignore the pain and concentrate on something else. Toughness Toughness combines the character's physical strength with their conditioning to reduce the damage they take from melee attacks. When hit by an attack that deals physical damage, the character gets to subtract their Toughness from total damage roll. * Formula: Body+Strength/2. More muscle mass makes a person more resilient against injures, and cardiovascular exercises will increase blood flow to reduce pain. Willpower Willpower won't stop mental assaults or psychological torture from affecting the character, but it will help them endure such abuse. When a character is targeted by a Psychic power such as mental Blasts or or Commands, they get to subtract their Willpower from the effect roll. * Formula: Ego+Intelligence/2. A strong sense of identity will make someone more resistant to mental and psychological attacks, while someone with a high intellect can rationalize their abuse so that it doesn't affect them as much. Speed During a single round, a character can make a number actions equal to their Speed. Actions are spent to make attacks, move, block or evade attacks, and adjust combat stances. * Formula: Agility+Dexterity/4. Getting the most out a character's turn requires both swiftness and efficiency. A high Agility will allow characters to act and react quickly, while high Dexterity allows them to reorient themselves sooner. Health Health is a broad measure of how severe the injuries the character can withstand before their body gives up and stops functioning. When a character has take enough bodily damage equal to their Health, they die. * Formula: Bodyx2. How much damage a body can take is entirely depending on the character's physical conditioning. Stamina Stamina roughly measures a character's endurance and pain threshold. When a character runs out of Stamina, they fall unconscious from pain and exhaustion. * Formula: Body+Egox2: Building up Stamina isn't just about performing physical exercises to increase the body's endurance. It's also about having the will to compel one's self to keep pushing their limitations, represented by their Ego. Other Statistics determined by Base Characteristics. Derived Characteristic are not the only statistics in which Base Characteristics help determine. Accuracy When a character takes an action that negatively impacts another character, like attacking them or targeting them with a Power. Accuracy always involves a 3d6 roll, but character get to increase their roll according to their Dexterity and one other Characteristic, depending on the type of attack. * Physical Attacks: 3d6+Dexterity+Strength/2. Striking someone physical requires a combination of technical skill and physical training, since skill without power is inadequate and power without technique is aimless. Weapons that require more finesse such as knives or whips might require Agility instead of Strength, but only when specified in the weapon's description. * Ranged Attacks: 3d6+Agility+Dexterity/2. Wielding a ranged weapon requires characters to have the necessary technique to hold the weapon properly and the reflexes to hit moving targets. * Power Attacks: 3d6+Characteristic. When a character builds a power, they choose either Charisma, Ego, or Intelligence as their Primary Characteristic, that is the stat characters choose to proved them with bonuses and set the power's Active Character Point cap. Regardless of whether the power works at range or requires the player to touch their target, they use the Primary Characteristic for Accuracy instead of their Agility or Strength. Skill Rolls When a character is asked to do something by the Game Master, they typically roll one set of their Characteristics Dice based on the task they want to complete; feats of quickness require Agility, breaking objects uses Strength, ect. If the required roll is based on a Skill, characters receive additional dice for their check based on their Proficiency in the skill (see Skills for details).